Under Pressure, Hagel Promises to Act on Guantánamo Transfers

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who is under pressure from within the Obama administration to step up his pace in approving the transfer of low-level Guantánamo Bay detainees, has told reporters that he would decide soon whether to accept a months-old offer to resettle six prisoners in Uruguay.

But Mr. Hagel, in his most expansive public comments about detainee transfers, acknowledged that he has been in no rush to sign off on them. He cited the burden and responsibility of being the one official who, under a legal obligation imposed by Congress, must personally determine that releasing a detainee makes sense.

“My name is going on that document. That’s a big responsibility,” Mr. Hagel said, adding: “What I’m doing is, I am taking my time. I owe that to the American people, to ensure that any decision I make is, in my mind, responsible.”

Mr. Hagel made his remarks in response to questions by a reporter accompanying him on a flight to Alaska late on Wednesday.

They came less than a week after Susan E. Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser, sent a three-page memo to Mr. Hagel requiring him to “provide an update on progress on detainee transfers every two weeks until further notice,” according to an official who read passages of the memo to a reporter.

Mr. Obama has sought to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, since taking office in 2009. Congress gave the secretary of defense the final say over approving transfers. He must determine that a transfer is in the national-security interest and that steps have been taken to “substantially mitigate” the risk that a detainee could pose a future threat to the United States or its allies.

Ms. Rice’s May 24 memo includes a record of Mr. Obama’s guidance on how much risk to accept when transferring detainees, including saying that it is “not a zero-risk standard,” and that the risk must be balanced against the harm to the United States caused by the continued operation of the facility.

The memo is said to define “substantially mitigate” as meaning that “steps have been or will be taken that would materially lessen the risk that detainee, post transfer, will engage or re-engage in any terrorist or other hostile activity that specifically threatens the United States or U.S. persons or interests.”

There were no transfers of low-level detainees under Mr. Hagel’s predecessor, Leon E. Panetta, who ran the Pentagon from July 2011 to February 2013. But Mr. Hagel has approved 11 transfers of low-level detainees, plus another who served out a sentence. Just one of those — an Algerian repatriated in March — came this year. Several officials said that more than a dozen detainees are the subject of proposed deals, and that there are serious talks with specific countries about taking in several dozen more.

In an interview with NPR on Thursday, Mr. Obama reiterated his desire to close Guantánamo. “We cannot in good conscience maintain a system of indefinite detention in which individuals who have not been tried and convicted are held permanently in this legal limbo outside of this country,” he said. He made a similar comment in his speech at West Point the day before.

In one respect, Mr. Obama’s negative portrayal of indefinite detention clashed with a key aspect of the approach to closing Guantánamo that he has advocated: He wants to bring several dozen detainees — who are deemed too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release — to a prison inside the United States for continued detention without trial.

Mr. Obama also said he keeps “chipping away” at the problem. Lisa O. Monaco, Mr. Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, said in an interview that the president raises the issue of transferring the low-level Guantánamo detainees “every week” with Mr. Hagel.

“Hagel has put in place a system where he is now meeting regularly with his team, and he has a list that he’s going through,” she said. “This is in large measure a response to the fact that he meets weekly with the president, and it is always on the president’s agenda.”

Several officials said Mr. Hagel and his top military adviser, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have closely scrutinized the potential consequences of proposed transfer deals — including whether a receiving country has sufficient capabilities to live up to its promises to keep tabs on former detainees.

“I have a system that I have developed, put in place, to look at every element, first of all complying with the law, risks, mitigation of risk. Does it hit the thresholds of the legalities required?” Mr. Hagel said. “Can I ensure compliance with all those requirements? There is a risk in everything.”

Of the 154 remaining detainees, 78 are recommended for transfer if security conditions can be met; most have had that status since a January 2010 task force report. Their ranks grew this month when a military board added Ghaleb Nassar al-Bihani, 35, a Yemeni who had been designated for indefinite detention, a document posted on Thursday said.

The bulk of the 78 come from countries with problematic security, including 58 Yemenis. Officials are deliberating over a report Congress mandated them to write about how risky it would be to repatriate some, including if Yemen builds a rehabilitation center. They are also exploring resettling Yemenis elsewhere, officials said.

Another four are Syrians. In January, officials said the State Department envoy for detainee issues, Cliff Sloan, went to Uruguay and met with its president, José Mujica, who offered to resettle the four Syrians and two others. Among them is Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, who is challenging the military’s policy of force-feeding hunger strikers. He ended his strike in February when it appeared his transfer was imminent, but later resumed his protest.

A federal judge had barred the military from force-feeding him, but lifted the order last week.

Charlie Savage reported from Washington, and Helene Cooper from Anchorage.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Under Pressure, Hagel Promises to Act on Guantánamo Transfers. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe